Well we get to travel to a lot of peoples barns....and I have found
it an amazing education.
Just a few tips I have found throughout the years......
First, what do you enjoy doing with your horses? Do you have cold
days, sunny hot days...shade and cool or warmth might need to be a
neccasity.
Make room to spend time with them under shelter.....
Make room for grooming, farrier, vet....
Make room for just hanging out with them, chair space, benches....
Feed. How to get it to your barn, how to get it to your horses....
Do you want stalls? Or would you rather keep them together in a more
natural setting with the all together under the roof with feeding
areas...
Farm equiptment storage..
Bathroom, shower, fridge, drinking water...?
emergency vet supply area...
How far from your home to the barn? Our is very close and we
utilize the barn a lot because of it...convienece.
Trailer parking for you and guests
A good circle driveway for easy trailer access.....
Which side is the sunny hot side, which side is cooler? Our feed
room is on the hot side, and our shoeing hangout area is on the cool
side.
Phone?
If you will install a round pen, how close can you put it to your
barn?
Some thing we have seen that amaze me. And some of these thing
people actually did on purpose.
1. No veichle access (we have seen many barns like this!)
2. No trailer access
3. Must drive through 3 or more gates to get to the barn
4. No place to tie a horse up to tack up, or groom or shoe (This is
common and sometimes I just still can not believe it!)
5. Tack is in another location altogether
6. Barn is located far away from the gates to the pastures......
7. Stalls have walls that go higher than a horses head...they are
unable to see any equines at all.
8. Barn built in a low area and not graded properly so is always
muddy and wet.
Our barn has no horse stalls....we hate shoveling poo.
We use paddocks if we want them close or if they need daily attention
due to injuries or sickness.
We have a circle driveway so that access is very easy.
We have a platform in the feed room so when I unload feed the
platform is the same height as the back of my pickup......makes for
easy unloading
We have an area where we can just hang out with our horses, shoe,
chat etc...we have several places to tie horses...
Tack is easy and accessible to get to
Round pen is next to barn, for easy training and playing
Its not fancy, but it is user friendly for our environment and our
needs and what we like to do with our horses.....
Make it a little bigger than what you think you will need.....there
is always a need for storage at a farm!
There are a lot of barn mfg out there....we did not have the dough
for something like that so I built it myself, cut down the trees for
the post and used old tin.....we wanted an old rustic look......its
funky but paid for!
Skye
~~~~Fire Island Farms~~~~
Breeding Quality Icelandic Trail Horses
Certified Farrier Services
'Natural Balance' Shoeing and Trimming.
Founder, Navicular options for your horse.
808-640-6080
